Dante's Heart
The Seven Sages of Rome
(from Il Libro del sette savi di Roma)
Translated from the Italian by Roberta Payne
Introduction by Alexandra H. Olsen
Read The Seven Sages
Introduction
This text is a translation of Il Libro del sette savi di Roma, a fourteenth-
century Italian version of a great but neglected work usually known as The
Seven Sages of Rome. It is the story of a widowed Roman emperor who
has his son educated in the seven liberal arts by seven wise men. When the
son returns to court, the emperor’s second wife seeks to seduce him and
then accuses him, like Potiphar’s wife, of rape. The empress and the seven
sages tell tales (twelve in the Italian version but different numbers in
different texts) to prove the son’s guilt or innocence, and the story ends
with the execution of the empress.
A Sanskrit version of The Seven Sages is attributed to the Indian
philosopher Syntipas (first century BCE), but it is not extant. The story
is known to have existed in Arabic, Persian, Syriac, and Greek, and there
are at least 40 different versions in the Middle Ages, demonstrating that it
was one of the most popular medieval works. There is considerable
variation among individual tales, but the works are obviously versions of the
same story. It was printed by Wynkyn de Worde around 1515, showing that
its popularity continued in the Renaissance. A version known as the Book
of Sindibad was translated from Greek to Latin as Dolopathos in the
twelfth century by Johannes de Alta Silva of the Abbey of Haute-
Seuill. It was translated into French around 1210 by a troubadour named
Herbers and later into French from a different Latin original as Li
Romans des sept sages. Versions of The Seven Sages which seem to
have had different Latin originals are found in German, English, French,
Spanish, and even Welsh, in a version in the Red Book of Hergert
attributed to “Llewelyn the priest.” Eight manuscripts of the Middle
English Seven Sages survive, a significant number that demonstrates its
popularity. Many of the European versions of The Seven Sages are
available in English translation online.
The Seven Sages of Rome is of the folklore genre of the “frame story,” a
genre found in many centuries and countries that encompasses different
narrative forms and traditions. The frame story is a collection that has a
fictional narrative or “frame” composed for the purpose of presenting an
anthology of tales narrated by one or more characters in the frame. The
purpose of a frame story can be purely entertaining or didactic, portraying
extended conversations between a student and a teacher where the teacher
tells tales to illustrate his points.
Next
(from Il Libro del sette savi di Roma)
Translated from the Italian by Roberta Payne
Introduction by Alexandra H. Olsen
Read The Seven Sages
Introduction
This text is a translation of Il Libro del sette savi di Roma, a fourteenth-
century Italian version of a great but neglected work usually known as The
Seven Sages of Rome. It is the story of a widowed Roman emperor who
has his son educated in the seven liberal arts by seven wise men. When the
son returns to court, the emperor’s second wife seeks to seduce him and
then accuses him, like Potiphar’s wife, of rape. The empress and the seven
sages tell tales (twelve in the Italian version but different numbers in
different texts) to prove the son’s guilt or innocence, and the story ends
with the execution of the empress.
A Sanskrit version of The Seven Sages is attributed to the Indian
philosopher Syntipas (first century BCE), but it is not extant. The story
is known to have existed in Arabic, Persian, Syriac, and Greek, and there
are at least 40 different versions in the Middle Ages, demonstrating that it
was one of the most popular medieval works. There is considerable
variation among individual tales, but the works are obviously versions of the
same story. It was printed by Wynkyn de Worde around 1515, showing that
its popularity continued in the Renaissance. A version known as the Book
of Sindibad was translated from Greek to Latin as Dolopathos in the
twelfth century by Johannes de Alta Silva of the Abbey of Haute-
Seuill. It was translated into French around 1210 by a troubadour named
Herbers and later into French from a different Latin original as Li
Romans des sept sages. Versions of The Seven Sages which seem to
have had different Latin originals are found in German, English, French,
Spanish, and even Welsh, in a version in the Red Book of Hergert
attributed to “Llewelyn the priest.” Eight manuscripts of the Middle
English Seven Sages survive, a significant number that demonstrates its
popularity. Many of the European versions of The Seven Sages are
available in English translation online.
The Seven Sages of Rome is of the folklore genre of the “frame story,” a
genre found in many centuries and countries that encompasses different
narrative forms and traditions. The frame story is a collection that has a
fictional narrative or “frame” composed for the purpose of presenting an
anthology of tales narrated by one or more characters in the frame. The
purpose of a frame story can be purely entertaining or didactic, portraying
extended conversations between a student and a teacher where the teacher
tells tales to illustrate his points.
Next
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